What Kind of Onservative Bill Buckley Was?

Finally, a deep-dive on William F. Buckley, Jr.! Matt and Sam are joined by Buckley's biographer, Sam Tanenhaus, to talk about WFB's 1965 campaign for mayor of New York City. Topics include: how Buckley's campaign made him the most famous conservative in America; the importance of his candidacy to the conservative movement's rise; the hardline positions he took on policing and his inflammatory views on race; and more. Along the way, Tanenhaus offers countless details that only Buckley's biographer would know, from WFB dropping LSD with James Burnham to the debate that changed Buckley forever.

Sources and Further Reading:

Sam Tanenhaus, Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (Random House, 1997)

Sam Tanenhaus, "The Buckley Effect," New York Times Magazine, October 2, 2005

Carl T. Bogus, Buckley: William F. Buckley Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism (Bloomsbury, 2011)

Matthew Sitman, "There Will Be No Buckley Revival," Commonweal, July 28, 2015

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